Iran: A Bridge too Far?

[multi]

The nuclear properties of plutonium-239, as well as the ability to produce large amounts of nearly pure plutonium-239, led to its use in nuclear weapons and nuclear power. The fissioning of an atom of uranium-235 in the reactor of a nuclear power plant produces two to three neutrons, and these neutrons can be absorbed by uranium-238 to produce plutonium-239 and other isotopes. Plutonium-239 can also absorb neutrons and fission along with the uranium-235. Plutonium fissions provide about one-third of the total energy produced in a typical commercial nuclear power plant. The use of plutonium-239 in power plants occurs without it ever being removed from the nuclear reactor fuel, i.e., it is fissioned in the same fuel rods in which it is produced.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plutonium_239

I see...
yes, it is easier than I thought

Is the difficult part is getting it all to fit in a bomb then?

[multi]

Ahmadinejad, however, has suckered the west into a confrontation for his own reasons. He has derailed Iran's economy, squandering record oil profits and paralysing the banks. He has alienated his core support among the poor. He has brazenly attempted to rig clerical institutions, the machinery that turns out Shiadom's future leaders, so as to consolidate his rule. Such an audacious plan, from a man who could once do no wrong, has triggered a momentous fight-back from affronted clerics and senior political figures.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/iran/story/0,,2224061,00.html

hmm..

[Mazer]

Originally Posted by multi

I see...
yes, it is easier than I thought

Is the difficult part is getting it all to fit in a bomb then?

That would make sense, although hiding such activity would be easy since it only takes a few smart men in one room together to build a bomb.

[multi]

Rudy Giuliani was counting on Iran as a weapon of mass distraction in the '08 race. But the flailing Republican right has just been disarmed.


Dec. 11, 2007 | The conclusions of the latest National Intelligence Estimate regarding Iran's lack of a nuclear weapons program will have a profound impact on the 2008 presidential campaign. The report may well prove a key element in throwing the election to the Democrats. Republicans have used the alleged nuclear threat posed by Iran to scare the American public and to turn attention away from Iraq, economic troubles and Republican scandals. But the NIE findings have pulled the rug out from under the Grand Old Party.

Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani initially dismissed the NIE, but on Sunday he backtracked substantially on "Meet the Press." He said of Iran, "And of course we don't ... want to use the military option. It would be dangerous; it would be risky." He added that it would be even more dangerous if Iran did acquire nuclear weapons, but immediately put on a mien of sweet reason: "We should utilize sanctions. We should utilize as much pressure as we're capable of." Now he represented the military option as a tool of diplomacy.

This is, of course, the same Rudy Giuliani who while campaigning has all but pledged to bomb Iran if elected. It is a "promise" and not a "threat," he has said, that if Tehran appears close to getting a bomb, he will "set them back eight or 10 years." While Giuliani hasn't specified how he would do so, he likely means launching military strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities such as the one at Natanz. That message has been accompanied by bluster from Giuliani worthy of a World Wrestling Federation ham in spandex: "We will not beg to negotiate with them. We're going to make them beg to negotiate with us." Such Hulk Hogan-style boasts may play to the Republican base, but Giuliani now seems more aware of the possibility that the war-weary public may not embrace his reckless bravado if he wins his party's nomination for the general election.
...More

[Mazer]

So basically, multi, your article is saying that Giuliani's threats against Iran weren't a liability against his campaign until after this report came out? What a silly claim. The report changed nothing because before it came out no voter wanted war with Iran anyway.

[vernarial]

....no voter wanted war with Iran anyway.

I don't know about that. I know a few voters that would like to wipe the whole middle east off of the map.

[multi]

September 11,9/11 ,911 ,11 of September and I could also mention 9-11.
over and over and over
are you hypnotized yet?
now that you are in my control you will vote for me, Me, ME!

I know a few voters that would like to wipe the whole middle east off of the map.

That would be those Pea-brained Albedians and evangelical doom sayers who would be casting their votes in favor of a middle eastern apocalypse. Indeed this report is a slap in the face for all those faithful supporters of war overseas and those creeping internet shills and their megaphone software.

[Mazer]

I think those people want to wipe the middle east off the map so we wouldn't have to make war there, vern.